vintage calc for school work

[Les Bell]

(07-10-2014 02:05 AM)brian42 Wrote:  I was recently searching for some old algebra texts and came across some 70's vintage Ti calculators. Which got me thinking, would it be possible to use a vintage calc for school? I'm about to head back to college after being out for years and I will be taking several math classes. I've been contemplating getting a new calculator for these classes but now I'm thinking maybe it would be better to get an older one. I already own a few Ti's and Casios and I'm not completely happy with any of them.

It really depends on what kind of math classes you'll be taking, along with the nature of your other studies. My experience has always been that, at college or university, I'd never use a calculator in math classes, but only in other subjects - in my case, electrical/electronic engineering and control theory, but you'd probably also use it in chemistry, biology, statistics, etc.

But don't be surprised if your lecturers recommend Mathematica, Matlab or similar PC software, rather than a calculator - either on college lab computers or via a site license or student license deal which will allow you to install it on your own computer. Once you're using that kind of software, calculator functionality is less important, as you'll mostly just use it for 'back-of-an-envelope' stuff.